My Dry January Experience

Nearing the end of 2022, I started meal prepping pretty seriously. I’ve been struggling with the so called “Covid 15” weight gain that has been hard to get rid of. Is it Covid related? I suppose if I wanted to point my finger anywhere else but at myself, that’s probably the next best place to stick the blame. When Covid hit, like most people, I thought it was going to be 2 weeks of not-so-normal life. “Great! I’ll have a beer every day of the pandemic!” I justified.

I also decided to run a 10k for every day of the pandemic. More on that later.

Well, as we all know, it was not a 2 week hiatus from normal life. All our social lives suffered, but I was able to meet up with my running club in a “virtual bar” where, you guessed it, we drank beers together, just through a computer screen.

Meanwhile, my job at the time was considered “essential.” That’s right, no days off for me! Running-wise, the first few weeks were great. I’d upgraded my run streak minimum to a 10k a day. At the time, I was running them fast. I felt good, and I like to run quickly. However, as any smart runner knows, that’s not sustainable. I used the pandemic as an excuse to not listen to my body. It was like I had something to prove. I got a pretty serious injury for not listening. That meant shorter, slower runs.

What is all this building up to? Weight gain. Eventually, I tried to settle back into only drinking beers on the weekends. I had noticed a big change when I made that shift previously. However, this time I just kept yo-yoing back and forth. Mainly because I wasn’t just drinking a couple of beers on the weekend, I was making up for all the days I didn’t drink during the week.

Fast forward to the end of 2022. I’m eating cleaner, and healthier, and mostly only drinking beer on the weekend. However, the quantity of beer I was drinking was out of hand. I’d often spend an entire day with a beer in my hand. To clarify, we’re not talking about Coors Lights. We’re talking all the good beer styles of the craft beer uprising.

By Friday, I’d be down a few pounds, and feeling pretty good about myself. By Sunday morning, I’d be heavier that I was the previous Monday, and often felt like junk.

With the Cocodona 250 looming, I want to be in the best shape I can be in by race day. So, Dry January seemed like a good time to make a positive change. Would there be pushback? You bet.

I have a few friends that didn’t like what I was doing, and they made their feelings on Dry January pretty clear. I could get deep here, and accuse those people of having their own problems to deal with, but let’s not. (Or did I just go there?) I also captain a running club that is centered on beer. After every run, we have beers and socialize. What will the runners think if one of their captains goes dry?

Week 1

You know how as soon as you tell yourself you can’t have something, it’s the only thing that you want? Well, that didn’t really happen to me! Sure, a beer sounded good once or twice, but I think because I jumped right into Cocodona training (with a coach!), my focus felt reinforced by my daily activities and my goals. Spoiler alert, week one was the only week that I thought, about stopping the madness and having a beer. Week one even ended with 1st Saturday. 1st Saturday is the holiest of holy days for Mikkeller Running Club. It’s the day that some 300ish chapters around the world run together, and then cheers each other with beers after! I was in luck. Our clubhouse - Mikkeller Little Italy - had one of their NA (Non-alcoholic) beers on draft! I could get away with having one of those, and not feeling like all eyes were on me.

Week 2

OMG, I made it through a weekend without gaining weight back! Wow, that felt good. I was starting a new week off ahead, instead of trying to play catch up. I felt pretty good; more alert, lighter, and my mood had improved. Coincidently, my running coach was also doing Dry January, and during one of our conversations, he had said “I’m so glad you’re doing Dry January. Your recovery is going to be so much better!” Huh? Drinking effects your recovery? I hadn’t really thought about that. It made sense, however, that inflammation wouldn’t be as big of an issue. I looked it up, and it turns out there was a lot more than reduced inflammation… Alcohol consumption dehydrates you, can cause sleep issues, make you more vulnerable to injury, increase your blood pressure, inhibits muscle growth, and puts strain on the liver - which should be trying to help the body recover from exercise instead of dealing with all the alcohol in your system. All of those things are essential to recovery… Duh!

Around this time, I started craving sweets (not normal for me) - I attribute that to the lack of beer in my diet. My body was trying to make up for a something that is usually there. Luckily we keep the pantry pretty absent of sweets. I also started having dreams in which I would break dry January. I’d wake up relieved.

Week 3

The first two weeks of the year were “easy weeks” as far as my training was concerned. Things really started ramping up by week 3, and this included a couple of days a week with 2 runs a day. I didn’t have time for beer. That is, wasn’t really thinking about it - other than when those few friends would mention something. Still, no cravings. There was one evening while winding down for the night, I was watching a YouTube video in which Gordon Ramsay was cooking beef ribs. The recipe called for a few “glugs” of red wine. As he was pouring the wine over the top of the ribs, suddenly the strongest urge for red wine came over me. Fortunately I was able to resist. Saturday night, Rose and I went to a friend's house, who was having a gathering. Naturally, there was lots of booze there. I knew there would be, so I came prepared with Hop Water, and Lagunitas Hoppy Refresher (think La Criox). By the end of the night, I was very well hydrated for my long run the following morning. More dreams of drinking.

Week 4

Just like that, January was coming to a close. Week four consisted of a lot more running, and a spontaneous work outing. This was stressful. You see, I don’t have the typical boss. He’s been known to find your price, and break you of your thing. He gets something out of breaking people’s will. (His words, not mine). The year prior, my coworker was days away from completing “75 hard”, and our boss awarded him a handsome raise just to drink one night. I’d tried to go dry back in August, and when he found out, I got a check for breaking on day 17.

I was stressed. This would be the first real pressure that I would face to break Dry January, and I only had a few days left! The pressure started before I expected in a group text message the night before. The price to “break my will” went up a couple of times that night. Then, at the breakfast table the next morning, offers kept coming at me. They were tempting, but I guess you could say that I was able to resist thanks to my pride. When I broke in August - I had what I considered a justifiable reason (a story for another time). This time, the only reason to break was for my own gain. It felt pretty easy to tune out the offers. I was more than a price tag. (Well sort of… luckily we never got to my price!)

Last Saturday, (4 days into February) I had my first beer. I chose an IPA that I love. The smell was the most welcoming thing about that beer. I decided to drink it slow. Sometime in the last week of January, I decided I would significantly cut down my beer intake. 2-3 beers a week is my goal. When I drink beer, I’m not trying to get drunk. Sometimes I would drink a lot of beers because there’s so many new ones to try. Often, just having a beverage in my hand makes feel like I need to hurry and empty the glass. So, I slowed down. I made a conscious effort to engage in more conversation, and set my beer down on the table periodically. I decided to savor my beer. I had approximately 3 beers that day, and later I felt like shit. I didn’t have enough water while I was having beer, and that’s something else I need to work on.

Dry January has helped me to regain control of myself. I don’t need to try the newest beer just because it’s on the menu and I haven’t had it before. I don’t need beer to have fun (cringe! - how cliche is that?) My days of Untappd check-ins ended some time ago, so I don’t need to drink a beer for a intangible badge. Beer no longer defines me. Do I still like beer? Of course, but I also like waking up without a headache. Will there be times that I don’t stick to my goal of 2-3 beers a week? Undoubtedly. It’s how I recover from those times that will really matter. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, in this case, that holds true. Dry January has made me more mindful of actions, and it was worth every second. As of the publish date of this blog entry, I’m down 20lbs!